Taoiseach Simon Harris has proposed the creation of a Department of Infrastructure to take the lead on delivering billions worth of major capital projects, including water, energy and housing, in the years ahead.
Saying a new department could, if created, “break down silos” within public administration to deliver projects on time and budget, Mr Harris denied that his idea is a negative verdict on the Government’s performance to date.
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“There is a need to develop a more co-ordinated approach to the delivery of some major infrastructural projects,” he said, speaking on the margins of the Patrick MacGill Summer School in Glenties.
Capital spending has been “ramped up” significantly to deal with the State’s growing population and the constraints affecting competitiveness, which are increasingly raised by stakeholders.
Pragmatic and decisive leadership must be offered if “we’re going to deliver for our people, if we’re going to ensure that politics can work for people, that good government can be delivered, that populists can be kept out of government”.
“I believe we will not be forgiven if we squander the huge opportunities we now have. I fundamentally believe in bringing people with us, in speaking truthfully about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, what we’re not doing, why we’re not doing it,” he said.
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Often, he said, people planning housing developments are more likely to raise problems about access to water and sewage and other infrastructural issues as blockages to completing projects, ahead of labour shortages.
Saying that he has more work to do to flesh out his idea, Mr Harris said a new department would see “a dedicated team of people working solely” on infrastructure, “who don’t find themselves constrained or conflicted by other matters”.
Defining his political philosophy as pragmatism, Mr Harris said politicians continually face attempts by “people in the media and political bubble” to try to place them on the political spectrum
“Where are you all in the political spectrum? Tell me what you stand for? Tell me what you stand for right now, and, ideally, if you could do a little tweeting about it. That’s not how the world works,” he said.
“Pragmatism is actually what public policy requires, and pragmatism is what leadership demands,” he said, “Pragmatism means being equal to the moment before us while preparing carefully for the next.
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“It’s not defined by the label of right or left, but by the action we take in the moment to solve problems in front of us. Pragmatism is knowing over what timescale actions need to be taken and knowing that you need to bring everyone with you.”
Communications in politics is no longer “a soft skill or something nice to have”, or something that should be regarded “as nearly an insult” by some, the Taoiseach declared in his speech to the summer school.
“Now more than ever, in the participative democracy we live in, it is so important to bring people with you. And the way you bring people with you is by levelling with them, is by giving them facts, is by engaging with them, is by being honest,” he said.
Politics must offer “energy, vision, hope, determination” and optimism and this is now “more essential” than ever before, he told the Donegal summer school.
“We seem to be somewhat perpetually on the brink of some new global crisis, some new catastrophe, some new conflict. Visible and invisible threats to our society and to our democratic values do appear to abound.
“The list of anxieties does seem to grow somewhat longer each and every year. This is not unique to Ireland, this seems to be right across our western world,” the Taoiseach said.
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